iTunes
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Top Indies in the iTunes Store for 2015
As the year winds to an end, it seems everyone’s got a Top Ten list to share. In the case of iTunes, they’ve unleashed their Best of 2015 list, which is broken down into various lists, including the most downloaded films overall, the most downloaded independent films, the most downloaded documentaries, the most downloaded films that debuted at film festivals in 2015 as well as iTunes’ editorial picks. In other words, it’s a great place to start if you want to catch up on festival favorites or other indie hits that you may have missed so far. Interestingly, most of the […]
by Paula Bernstein on Dec 9, 2015 -
Several Kind of Funny Reasons Why You Probably Shouldn’t Upgrade to Apple Music Yet
I have a lot of positive things to write about Apple Music, but in the interest of not burying the lede, I’ll write this first: If you have a large, well-tended and carefully created iTunes Music Library, do not upgrade to Apple Music. Do not install the latest 12.2 version of iTunes and, most importantly, do not turn on iCloud Music Library on any of your devices. Or, if you decide to ignore the above advice, make sure you have a Time Machine backup of your iTunes library before you go ahead and do so. Why the alarm, you ask? […]
by Scott Macaulay on Jul 6, 2015 -
The Book of Lone Peak: Distributing and Marketing the Short Film
For ten days in January a documentary called The Book of Lone Peak ranked as the top-selling short film on iTunes. The film, which profiles a high school basketball team from the town of Highland, Utah, was made by New York City-based filmmaker Ben Altarescu and a fifteen-year-old journalism student named Zack Samberg. The pair moved quickly to push the project through to completion before the basketball players left for post-high school pursuits. The filmmakers talked with me about how a professional filmmaker and teenager collaborated and how they helped push the film on iTunes and other platforms. Filmmaker: You both came to this project […]
by Randy Astle on Mar 26, 2014 -
Liesl Copland on the “Analytic Black Holes” of Netflix, iTunes and Amazon
A filmmaker called me the other day, asking if I could think of some comps for his movie. You know, other movies whose marketplace performance would indicate that there is a paying audience for his demographically-similar picture. He named a title he really liked and said he was shocked to see via Box Office Mojo that it had done so poorly. Indeed, its reported box office was in the five figures. The very low five figures. “But that box-office figure is misleading,” I replied. “The film was bought by a company whose strategy is to release on VOD and digital […]
by Scott Macaulay on Sep 11, 2013 -
Video Streaming & Indies
Now that the 2013 Sundance Film Festival is underway, it’s an opportunity to remind indie filmmakers that, sadly, their future is on the web and not in movie theatres. Park City screenings, parties and other get-togethers are great fun and a good chance to meet other makers and distributors. However, don’t expect to make a deal! This year Sundance will screen 119 feature-length films from 32 countries, including works from 51 first-time directors. These works were selected from 12,146 submissions, including 4,044 feature-length films and 8,102 shorts. One can only wonder if the odds for having one’s feature selected (2.9%) […]
by David Rosen on Jan 18, 2013 -
VIDEO ON DEMAND CALENDAR NOW ONLINE!
It’s an idea that has been swirling around the Filmmaker Magazine office for quite a while and today it became a reality with the launch of our Video On Demand calendar. Every month we will unveil a curated list of independent film titles that we feel are worth checking out through On Demand cable providers and streaming services. You’ll find some titles we’ve already covered online or in the magazine when they played theatrically, while others are festival favorites that are premiering on VOD. We also give our “VOD Pick of the Month” and note if a title is available […]
by Jason Guerrasio on Mar 9, 2011 -
THINKING ABOUT GOOGLE TV
At Google’s IO Conference this week, the search giant announced several new products and platforms, including the latest Android operating system, Froyo (named after “frozen yogurt”), and, perhaps most significantly for filmmakers, Google TV. At the heart of Google TV is a simple notion: right now we watch a lot of TV after it is broadcast on our computer simply because a) its creators have placed it there and b) it’s easy to find what we want to watch through internet search. But, if we could watch it on our TV screens? Wouldn’t we rather view it there? At his […]
by Scott Macaulay on May 22, 2010 -
CERTIFIED FRESHER
Anne Thompson reports that starting today Rotten Tomatoes has integrated with Apple‘s iTunes store. According to Thompson: “Rotten Tomatoes is now part of Flixster; together the sites and their mobile apps reach more than 30 million moviegoers each month.”
by Jason Guerrasio on May 20, 2010 -
A NETFLIX KILLER?
Apple Insider has a revealing article posted that signals Apple’s intentions with regards to an iTunes Movie Store. The article references a survey undertaken by Apple that tests the concept of a subscription-based movie download service on consumers. From the piece: A survey distributed this week through Coyote Insight, a Fullerton, Calif.-based market research firm, asked that participants answer a series of questions related to a potential “iTunes movie service” that would provide on-demand access to movies that could be downloaded to a computer or iPod. “This iTunes service would provide access to 1,000 movies on demand which can be […]
by Scott Macaulay on Mar 2, 2006
